“John Key and his partners have lost the connection with the people and their original purpose. I would never have gone into politics if it wasn’t for the abuse that I have experienced. I have been a victim of numerous unlawful actions by both the New Zealand and US Governments. There’s something seriously wrong with a government that engages in this kind of activity to please another government.”
“When the Internet Party makes it into Parliament, the NSA Five Eyes spy network will lose one eye. We intend re-evaluating the relationship between New Zealand and the US Government.”
The intelligent gathered is used to target terrorists with drones. This is an ancient military tactic. The shock trooper. We are at war. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_troops
That its outsourced, no soldiers necessary, and kills innocent women and children, creating collateral damage to our allies, hidden behind the curtain of state security, should scare everyone except of course we believe – like our leaders – that psychological warfare is not only legal but necessary to transform backward societies.
The five eyes is just the tip of the problem, that we can talk about thanks to Dotcom and Snowdon. Dotcom from his lawyers opening up the illegality of spy agencies, and Snowdon for the outsourcing, depth, breath, of the spying.
Do McDonalds and other sectors of the food industry pay the Herald to write their articles?
Susan Edmunds hang your head in shame.
What a disgraceful and desperate corporate rag.
I really liked this bit.
Another widely-heard myth was that there were antibiotics in chicken meat. But it had been years since any antibiotic residue had been found in chicken meat – “There’s quite a stringent testing programme,” in New Zealand.”
I think that the word myth in this instance has not been used correctly, I thought that a myth was something that was not true, a story , a fiction that is widely told. If however it has actually been true in the past – ie their used to be antibiotics in chicken. Then it is not a myth at all.
‘Thirty per cent of chickens in 20 farms across the North Island have been found to be suffering from leg problems affecting their movement.
The finding is in a new report from the Ministry for Primary Industries that lifts the lid on “lameness levels” among New Zealand’s indoor chicken meat farms.All the farms surveyed had feed containing antibiotics.”
Although to be pedantic, feeding chickens antibiotics doesn’t mean there will be residue in the meat. Meat producers have delay times between medicating animals and those animals being slaughtered for consumption (same with pesticide use on plants), so the antibiotics can be metabolised out (ie they go into the chook poo and in to the environment instead).
I don’t know if I believe the bit about no residues, but it is technically possible.
Even if the antibiotic issues is resolved, eating animals raised in factories changes the nutrient profile, which is a good reason not to eat them (in addition to the cruelty aspect).
Even if the antibiotic issues is resolved, eating animals raised in factories changes the nutrient profile, which is a good reason not to eat them (in addition to the cruelty aspect).
Yep, it’s the caged farming of the chickens that’s the problem – not the antibiotics.
The antibiotics are serious problem too. Their overuse in raising food is causing resistance bacteria, and then the drugs end up in the environment as well. It’s possible to raise animals without using antibiotics like that.
Shame that animals, unlike us, are too smart to fall for the whole panopticon ruse then…y’know, cause in that case, we could have them raised with the bars essentially in their heads and presumably have no need for them thar antibiotics.
Agree with you here weka, the problem with feeding antibiotics to animals that we then go on to eat is that IF we are then exposed to higher antibiotic use through the food chain this may go some way to explain why antibiotics have now become so ineffective in too many areas of medicine,
Having just spent the week researching H3N2,(a flu virus), on another little mission,i can say that antibiotics are 93% inefficient against this particular viral infection,(which may be why there is a high instance of H3N2 morphing into full on viral pneumonia)…
Hmm, antiobiotics work against bacteria. They don’t affect viruses. Sometimes they are prescribed for viral infections to prevent secondary bacterial infection, but they are not a remedy for flu viruses.
Yeah sorry, i should have said bacterial pneumonia there and the problem with the A strain of H3N2 in particular is the co-infections that have a propensity to invade along with it,
What’s Judith Collins playing at? http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11188760
Is she just trying to distance the government from any fallout if it’s determined that the relevant agencies have tragically failed the family in Dunedin?
Is she just trying to soften her ‘crusher’ image and boost her profile? If so, why? And wouldn’t it be pretty tacky to use a tragedy like this for such a thing?
Given that this is the second attention-grabbing story from her in a week (this other being the attack on the CTU over the H&S money allocated by ACC which she subsequently backed away from, after getting the headline she wanted) is it that she’s privy to information around the election timing and she’s just switched into campaign mode?
no statistics published,
repealing the Bristol clauses,
the costs and difficulties of getting protection orders to start with (there are only a few thousand each year compared to the traffic through the Refuges and the 76,000 complaints laid with the police),
the lack of police action with those 76,000 complaints (gotta keep the crime rates down you know)
the wet bus ticket safety orders used, (keep away from the house for three days- who cares if her and the kids have to move out, he needs the property)
the very watered down DV laws passed by the Nacts at the start of their reign
This smacks of a pre-emptive strike in case this blows up to roast busters size.
And of course it’s important that we focus on poor feeling sorry for poor Judith
Two points struck me
>>The Justice Minister spoke to the Herald on Sunday yesterday, after announcing plans to use GPS monitors to track violent men and stop them going near women they had threatened or attacked.
>>She was not impressed by criticism of police in this case.
I read in one report that the police took 50 minutes to respond.
If that was so then that appears to be the weak point. If the response is so slow then Gps, protection orders don’t appear to be at all effective.
AND has there been ANY arrests in the roast busters case?
I’m wary of Collins using this case (and her cousins) as a promo for using GPS monitors. This reminds me of the 5 Eyes use of domestic violence and child abuse, child pornography etc, as an reason for GCSB/NSA surveillance.
When it comes to domestic and partner abuse, there’s a far wider cultural problem – as seen with this case of a woman who was battered in the street, while by standers did nothing. One gave the reason for not intervening to help the woman as that he thought the perp was the victim’s partner.
It’s very difficult to intervene to stop domestic violence when it’s occurring. Sometimes the abuser and their victim then set upon the person who is trying to intervene. Your average citizen is simply not equipped to deal with a violent and potentially escalating situation. That’s why we have the police, who aren’t much good if they don’t respond.
This all points to there being systematic dysfunction within the police force, an observation confirmed by their refusal to divulge exactly how many times they had been contacted about Edward Livingstone’s horrendous behaviour.
The other issue here is that National has made huge cuts in the amount of funding for organizations that are designed to help abused woman and their children escape dangerous situations. The fact of the matter is that if some of those services were still available, then perhaps Katharine Webb’s children would still be alive.
I find it pretty disgusting that Judith Collin’s has decided to use these terribly sad deaths of two children to promote GPS monitors while not once addressing the actual underlying dysfunction her government has caused. She seems to think that only the murderer is to blame. However those who knew these murders were likely to occur are also somewhat to blame. They should feel ashamed and be held to account for not doing anything.
“That’s why we have the police, who aren’t much good if they don’t respond.”
+1
Unfortunately we don’t ekshly have a “police” as such these days. We have a “Polis”
… a corporatised, politicised, bean-counter-driven agency of State – not too dissimilar from the others whereby it has become yet another fiefdom – under the helm of its Commissar whose expectations as to performance, are driven by prescribed & economically-based ‘deliverables’ – all probably set up in some frikken ‘purchase agreement’ somewhere.
What’s even more sad (sadder?) is when it comes to ‘accountability, and transparency’ – the foot soldiers always get the blame.
i will not decry the behavior of the Police vis a vis Edward Livingston’s insanity, what i believe has occurred here is that when His ex-wife fled the property and alerted the police from the neighbour’s place she has confirmed on the phone to the Police Comm’s center that there definitely was a firearm involved,
Where there is confirmation of a definite firearm in an incident then ‘their rules’ are that the Armed Offenders Squad must be the ‘first arrivals’ as far as the Police goes,
While the above does beg the question ‘why then are there gun cabinets in every cop car’ i still understand why it is the Armed Offenders Squad,(and hence the 40 minutes to get to the property), who are tasked to be first at an incident where a firearm has been confirmed as being involved,
i particularly have no reason to be defending the plods, the only interaction i have ever had with them has been as the ‘offender’ and have only commented in the interest of balance…
In the interest of balance then I should level some criticism at our biased justice system that was more concerned with an abuser losing his job at Corrections than protecting his victims.
Let’s not forget that Livingstone boasted to people that he was going to kill his children before he went and committed that very heinous crime. What exactly did those people who he informed do about such statements and more to the point, what the fuck did the Police do about it? As far as I’m aware, threatening to kill children is a pretty serious crime.
Also, what exactly was the Police’s recommendations to the court when the idiot judge let Livingstone walk free for twice breaching his protection orders? I presume they were as equally biased as the Judge was because of Livingstone position.
Let’s not forget the compromised psychiatrist who made a submission/affidavit to the court saying Livingstone was fine because of a change in medication. That finding was clearly wrong and I presume he gave such a biased opinion because he was also employed by Corrections.
If Livingstone wasn’t a white male who worked for Corrections…a man who had twice been caught out breaching protection orders, made threats to kill his children and stalked his victims for at least a month before committing child murder and then suicide, he would have been locked up quick smart. So no bad12, I don’t accept that the Police are not to blame here because of procedural matters surrounding the actual murders. They could have done a lot lot more.
Sorry i cannot agree with you Jackel, i forgot the number of protection orders that are currently in force here but believe it to number over 20,000,
The simple fact is that these orders are actually breached so often that to lock up every offender for doing so would require a hell of a lot more prisons be built,
The obviously insane Livingstone, until the point where He actually physically acted fit the profile of what is in fact ‘pretty average’ for a person who has had a protection order issued against them, most who offend against protection orders desist after appearing in Court a couple of time and being warned off by a judge,
That small %, in my opinion those with the strongest belief that their ex partner and children are their ‘property’,go on to acts of violence and it is left to the judiciary to try and fathom just who among the 1000’s of those who do breach protection orders is so dangerous that they have to be locked up,
As family violence has no particular demographic, except for by a huge % usually being the province of the male ‘the system’ gets it wrong when attempting to define the danger level of a particular breacher of a protection order a many times as it gets it right,
As i said at the start of this comment, other then the present system the alternative would be to build one hell of a lot more prisons and lock up every breacher of a protection order…
You do have a point that the breaches of Livingstone’s protection orders that the Police pursued weren’t particularly serious. However it is his other behaviour that the Police appear to have not bothered to act on that is of most concern…particularly the fact that Livingstone had threatened to kill his children. Are you seriously saying that the Police should not have arrested Livingstone for threatening to kill children?
I don’t necessarily agree that we would need more prisons (there are in fact far more cells available than currently required) if protection orders were more heavily enforced. What we do need is for officials to do their jobs properly, because for every Livingstone who is allowed his freedom to go onto commit further crimes, there are people who are being locked up for no good reason at all because of failings and bias within a corrupted system.
Much of this disproportionate application of the law is based on a person’s position within society, who they know or are related to and/or the colour of their skin. It is also related to the bean counters trying to get blood out of a stone. Some of those dysfunctional aspects of our “justice” system appear to be why these terrible murders have occurred, which I might add is a statement that doesn’t diminish the brevity of Livingstone’s unforgivable crimes at all.
Nope never even came anywhere near insinuating that the Police should not have arrested Livingston and put Him befor the Court for threats against His children,and my defense of the Plods has simply been one of defending the time it took them to get to the address and why i think it took that time,
i totally agree with you vis a vis the likes of Livingston and the outcome that is more likely to occur where the person in breach of a protection order happens to be brown and unemployed and the statistics would tell us that living in the much extolled ‘family’ is to all extents and purposes just as dangerous,if not more so,then drinking every night in a bar frequented by gang members,
While i totally agree with you on the fact that any number of those filling our jails are of no real danger to the public and should be either serving community or home based sentences my comments above are based around what IS as opposed to the ideal…
I’m with you on this one Jackel. The ability of the system, male judges, police, courts to find excuses for offenders and actively promote their rights to do what they are doing up to and including the stuff going on right in front of them has to be seen to be believed.
There needs to be a graduated response:
The easiest way to ascertain the degree of the offence is to provide voluntary programmes and at the first hint of breaches unless someone goes and gets a pass out certificate then it goes to court.( a way out for the genuinely sorry and a oncer)
If they don’t do that, then you lock them up for a couple of days a week, their weekend, and the programme is now compulsory. If they don’t turn up they get arrested at work which is apparently a huge deterrent.
The left overs are real trouble.
And yes socio-economic variables play a huge part in judicial response.
Playing “I am a victim too” scenario tends to blindside the public into believing that you are working in the interests of “everyone”. A GPS unit to track those with restraining orders today, they also want to monitor pedophiles, the thing is, then what is next on the agenda?
Remember Pike River. Gary Knowles, the local superintendent was heavily criticized at the time, but in reality, he was just taking his orders from Police National Headquarters in Wellington. When Judith Collins arrived down in Greymouth, she was ready to round up anyone criticizing Gary Knowles, but she never admitted he was simply following a script. The Police in Wellington were completely unaware of Mines Rescue Unit, who were sitting right by the mine. That was where the real incompetence lay, and Judith Collins was only to willing to cover it up.
Its possible to put six propellers on a circuit board and herd sheep. Its easy and cheap to place six toy tank tracks on a circuit board and send it up the mine (and have some spare to attach a rope and pull them out should they fail). But we don’t because the National politicians are exposed on this issue, it was their policy around safety. Their ideology around profit at all costs. Their inane mining will grow NZ when we don’t have a empty desert like Australia’s mine industry has.
Dotcom’s political inexperience is also showing. His party launch was planned to be an extravaganza. It was cancelled abruptly on the pretext that it contravened electoral laws preventing bribing voters.
That is simply not true. Paying for a party launch is permitted. It is silly to say it’s bribery. Maybe part of the problem is that Dotcom has employed an American political consultant, James Kimmer, to advise him. Former mayoral candidate John Palino learned the hard way that involving outsiders to run his political strategies wasn’t the smartest idea.
I thought the problem wasn;t that it was meant to be a political party launch, but that it was providing free entertainment as PR for the Internet party launch….?
He also claims that Palino had ‘outsiders’ run his strategy.
BBzzzztt! Wrong. He had the Slater Gang running his (Palino) strategy, the ultimate insiders. McCarten wake up.
What people constantly overlook in the Internet Party start up fiasco is that DotCom was going to hoodwink a lot of people into joining his party, by having a party. Scumbags like the Slater Gang would instantly be complaining to Police and other officials trying to scupper Dotcom, all at the behest of the 9th Floor.
Dotcom is out to get Key, and they will do ANYTHING to stop that.
Yes, it’s looking like Teams Key and Slater/Collins don’t want to be exposed by a KDC-led party. But also, the Mana Party supported by Matt McCarten must fear that the IntP will cut into their potential votes – both hoping to pull in some votes from the politically disengaged, non-voting young.
I see McCarten also takes a little swipe at the IntParty maybe pulling in some “soft Green Party” votes. Kind of a dog whistle for Greens appealing to “blue greens” and not really being a left party.
Speaking of the Mana Party, a big ups to the Party in Auckland for helping get together six shipping containers of food and other basics for the cyclone ravaged people of Tonga,
Basic bread and butter stuff with a lotta heart thrown in is why i am definitely,(while the Green Party is polling high),considering casting a vote for the Mana Party in 2014 in an attempt to have 2 or 3 Mana Party Parliamentarians emerge from the 2014 election which would pretty much ensure Slippery and His Ministers are made redundant…
Phillip,cannot disagree with any of your analysis and i think i have commented a number of times in the same vein,
Indeed, i have a view that Labour have an excellent chance of taking back both Te Tai Hauauru and Tamaki Makaurau in 2014,(in saying so i may be gauging too lightly the Mana Party support in Auckland),
It then would seem,in the light of ‘the rights’ happy gerry mandering only common sense for Labour and Mana to agree on these two seats with the Mana Party agreeing not to stand candidates and Labour agreeing not to contest Waiariki where Flavell has a 1000 vote majority over Annette Sykes,
MMP demands of the major political parties that ‘they’ make accommodations with smaller parties while always looking for ways to foster and grow those parties, National seem to have grasped this little fact while a lot of Labour seem to be mired in the FPP past with an attitude that certain seats and constituencies are theirs as of right…
Phillip, yes i agree the Green Party need carefully consider how thye approach ‘some’ of the electorate seats, and i believe that there is ongoing analysis of this within the Party hierarchy,(the genesis of the recent spat the Party had with David Hay being part of this),
Lolz,Noooooo, my belief is that in the MMP enviroment there is no need for a party such as the Greens to bother with electorate seats, i cannot envisage a time when the Green Party cannot muster more than 5% of the vote,(unless in say a coalition with Labour they allowed more of the Neo-Lib agenda to flourish simply to get bums on the heated seats of the Ministerial limo’s), so chasing electorate seats even if one were offered with a nod and a wink from Labour seems to me to be not the best use of resources,
Using such resources to chase, in the provincial cities, young born to rule National Party voters with a belief in ecological/enviromental issues so as to convince as many of them as possible to split their votes National electorate and Green party i believe would be a far more efficacious use of such resources…
Two seats for Mana might be within reach. They, like ACT, were only about 4,000 votes short last time. However getting to three would mean getting twice as many votes as in the last election and looking at the polls would suggest that this is likely to be out of reach.
There isn’t any real sense in switching your vote from Green to Mana if your aim is to get a left wing Government as if as every new vote for Mana would merely be one less vote for the Green Party. Hence if Green party voters are the ones making the switch it simply means that an extra seat for Mana would mean one less seat for the Green Party. The “Green Party is polling high” has nothing to do with it.
Why not stick to the party you really support? If nothing else a Government comprising only Labour and the Green Party would likely be more stable than one made up of a lot of small parties.
Ha ha ha, Alwyn, you are not on Slippery the Prime Ministers payroll by any chance are you, your WRONG political analysis coupled with your last paragraph reek and drip as the writings of a snake-oil salesman,
Point(1), who would have expected a red-necked wing-nut to totally exclude Maori voters from their ‘thinking’ when it comes to the Mana Party,
Check out the Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election and the inroads the Mana party made to the vote of the Maori Party in that particular contest,
Do you really think that the disintergration of the Maori Party likely to be completed at the 2014 election will mean that Labour will have all those voters return to the Labour Party fold,(more fool you if you do), a huge swathe of Maori Party voters as shown by the Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election are going to transfer their vote to the Mana Party in 2014,
Point(2), The Green party vote, in which election has not the Green Party raised it’s share of the Party Vote, as a National Party tool Alwyn it is fact you who should be worried about the upward trajectory of the Green Party where in the National held electorates in Auckland City between elections 2008 and 2011 the Green Party managed to double it’s share of the Party vote,(yes even in the ACT held Epsom),
Should such an excellent result again transpire in those Auckland National held electorates for the Green Party or the same doubling of the Green Party vote occur in the National held provincial electorates then it’s ‘see you later Slippery time’,
You have Alwyn no understanding of what a ‘tactical voter’ is simply presupposing that i/we voted Green Party in 2011 and any deviation from this will result in a ‘loss’ of votes for the Party,
i am a Green Party member who happily admits to ‘tactical voting’, i have a budget for ‘political action’ most of which goes toward the Green Parties electoral efforts, see the ‘Point’ now do you Alywyn….
My God, how confused can you get?
What a load of tripe.
As a simple example, consider your second to last paragraph. If, as you appear to be saying, you voted Green at the last election and propose to switch and vote Mana at the next that is obviously a loss of a vote for the Greens. Everyone else who does the same is another vote lost for the Green party. Still, logic was never a strong point in the views of a Green.
In terms of Mana they haven’t got more that 1% in any of the Roy Morgan polls in the last six months. They will need to get about 2.3% if they hope to pick up three seats, won’t they? Alternatively they will need 3 electorate seats and that doesn’t seem likely.
As far as “In which election has not the Green Party raised its share of the party vote” you clearly have a very short memory. In 2002 they got 7% of the vote. In 2005 this DROPPED to 5.3%.
There, have another try.
Actually if I was a Green supporter I would worry that Dotcom might attract some support. I think that his natural supporters would comprise young people who either do not vote or who currently vote for the Green party. I don’t think he will so don’t get too fearful.
Yes Alwyn i am sure you are in a state of confusion most of the time, i suggest you read and then re-read that paragraph again slooooowly,
Maybe i should have resisted using such a phrase that ‘i being a tactical voter presupposes that i voted Green in 2011,
Do you now Get the point Alwyn, if i didn’t vote Green in 2011 then i and those who are of a like mind as tactical voters who vote for the Mana Party this year will result in no loss of vote to the Green Party,
As i point out above, my vote to the Green Party is worth, well its worth just one vote, however, if say my budget this year for ‘political activism’ is 500 dollars which for electioneering purposes the Green Party will get then in all reality advertising can be bought with that 500 dollars which will gain the Green Party more than just my one vote,
Of course if my 500 donation is used by the Green Party to mount a campaign in the provincial cities currently held by Slippery’s National Government that is as effective as that mounted in the National held Auckland City National held electorates at the 2011 election,(the Green Party doubled its vote in these electorates),then such a donation will definitely have a reward far greater than my
one simple vote could garner for them…
It is a little odd that someone who is a Green Party member but doesn’t vote for the party.
Perhaps you know the people on the list to well to want them anywhere near the heated leather seats in the Limos. That would make sense.
Giving money to the Mana party would certainly help them. That I do agree with.
You do continue to go on about the Green Party “doubling its vote in the National held Auckland electorates”. Can you please provide a reference that justifies this claim? After all we have already seen that you make claims that are not justified by facts, haven’t we? When you claimed that the Green Party vote has increased in evry election we see that was just an example of a furphy wasn’t it?
I have done a very quick check on your claim about the “Green Party doubled its vote” in those electorates. On a rough check, and I might have missed out one of the National held Auckland electorates, I find that the Green Party got 21,377 votes in 2008 and 33,756 votes in 2011. That is an increase, not of 100% as you claim, but of 58%. On the other hand looking at the whole country the Green Party went from 157,613 votes to 247,372. This is of course of 57%. There is clearly no real difference between “National held Auckland Electorates” and any others in the country is there?
Alwyn, more lies from you, where have i claimed that the Green Party has increased it’s vote at every election,
What you take to be claiming that is in fact the question i put,”in which election has not the Green Party vote gone up”,
That to you might translate into a claim that the Green Party vote has gone up at every election but in plain English untwisted by the bent of a wing-nut(you), simply asks a question,
The doubling of the Green Party party vote in those Auckland electorates held by the National Party also includes Epsom held by act, i am sure you can find the particular government web-page which provides those facts,
Lolz, and Lolz again only a 58% increase in that Green Party party vote in the Auckland City electorates held by National between elections 2008 and 2011, that deserves another large LOL and is sure as hell wing-nut heaven pulling defeat from the jaws of victory,
Provide the relevant link to how you have arrived at this 58% LOLZ rise in the Green Party party vote and i might just be moved to provide you with the relevant large number of links to all those Auckland City electorates currently held by the National,(and ACT),parties…
It is normally the case, when one is asking a question, to put a question mark at the end, isn’t it? Of course you don’t seem to know about such things and the way you wrote it makes it a statement, not a question. You really must try harder.
Even if you include Epsom, and that is not of course a National held seat, you only get an increase in the Auckland National and ACT seats of 59% from 2008 to 2011. That is still vastly short of the doubling you keep going on about, isn’t it? Or are you completely innumerate and don’t see any difference between 1.59 and 2.00?
I’m sure you can find that website and see that I am right. You can also tell me where you found these numbers that according to you show that the Green Party DOUBLED their vote in those electorates. You have now made that claim three times. Alternatively you can give up and admit that the claim was wrong and that you were lying when you made it.
I was also unimpressed by Matt’s claim that the party would not have contravened electoral law, considering the amount of press coverage of the Electoral Commission’s advice to KDC’s lawyers.
For example, NBR have a copy of the email from the Electoral Commission and quoted it in full in this article on Thursday.
The Electoral Commission make it clear in their email, that even if the political party launch was done separately, the entertainment Party could still possibly be considered ‘treating’.
You will note that Section 217 applies even though (a) the treating may be direct or indirect, (b) at any time, not just during an election period, and (c) apply to every elector and not just the promoter of an event such the Party Party. The Commission remains concerned that the action Kim Dotcom intends to take (limiting the event to his 40th birthday and the –launch of his music album) may not be sufficient to eliminate the risk of the activity falling within the scope of the treating provisions. This is because the event was originally intended to include the Internet Party launch, we understand that the event will be called the Party Party and Kim Dotcom is the leader of the Internet Party. In addition, we understand that the Internet Party’s soft launch was to be scheduled for the same day as the event.*
The Courts have previously held that the offence of “treating” requires an intention on the part of the person treating to influence the votes of the persons treated.
The question of intention is an inference of fact which the Court has to draw. If in any case, looking at all the circumstances, the reasonable and probable effect of the alleged treating would be to influence the result of the election, or to influence the votes of individual voters, it might well be inferred that it was the intention of the persons treating that this effect would follow.
The Commission is concerned that the Party Party may expose both those promoting an attending it to risk of prosecution for treating.
*PS – I had not read this article or the Electoral Commission’s email before my comment on Friday(?) on The Internet Party post in which I speculated that KDC and Co may have been contemplating still holding the IP launch on the same day, once it became obvious that they could not do it at the PartyParty. Not trying to be ‘smart’, but it would seem my speculation was on the mark. Pheewww. Not that it is of any real importance, anyway.
Not sure, Phillip. But I was not impressed with his article overall either. Seemed to be a bit of sour grapes to me. IMO, the Internet Party may appeal to a very different constituency to the Mana Party, but we will not really know until we see the IP’s policies and candidates.
According to this Herald article today, the launch has been postponed for a month until February 20.
The article also seems to imply that they will be taking a very different approach to that proposed in the leaked Bradbury proposal of concentrating on 2 – 3 Auckland electoral seats. Instead, it seems to suggest that they will be going for party votes to get them over the 5% threshold.
The gloves are already off between KDC and Key, although I haven’t seem Key’s comments on the IP. I gather Key is ‘back in town’ and was (or is) opening Chinese New Year celebrations this weekend.
My’ not sure’ was in relation to your “on all levels”, rather than your ‘just blowing smoke’ . Sorry I did not make that clear. I had also forgotten about his earlier article, so must go back and reread it. I do give Mccarten a bit of slack due to his health problems over recent years.
Surprise. Surprise. ACC manipulated by politicians. In the Press today. Nick Smith? Surely not!
” A leaked internal ACC document claims successive governments have manipulated the scheme for their own political ends.
Produced for former chief executive Ralph Stewart , the document contains a chart showing a correlation between the government in office and the inflation-adjusted payments made by ACC.
According to the document, Need for Change, ACC is “demonstrably inconsistent” and claimants are treated differently according to “political cycles”.
A former ACC director aid the swings in policy were achieved through governments appointing the ACC board, which instructs chief executives what is required of them. …….”
In case you missed it….prime example of how loosely left politicians hold their principles. Big ups to the Kiwi student that asked the obvious question though…. http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/
For once I agree with you.
It’s tweedledee and tweedledum politics.
Most parliamentary left groups betrayed their people 30 years ago.
Hence the 800 000 non-voters.
Most Labour parties are simply offering neo-liberalism lite.
Gillard is angling for a UN job. Rum our is that she is likely to replace Helen Clark as concern builds within the UN at the current performance of the UNDP
I think that whoever has come up with this rumour should get the classic Darryl Kerrigan response in the movie “The Castle”. In other words “Tell him he’s dreaming”.
Helen’s second, current, term won’t expire until around the middle of 2017. The UN has no record of replacing people in senior roles before the expiry date, and isn’t likely to start now.
Additionally of course there is no point in Gillard “angling for a UN job, at least at the level of Clark’s one unless she gets strong backing from her own Government. Do you really think that Abbott would spend significant political credit on Gillard’s dreams?
Lol, that article is a prime example of how loosely right wing spokesbots lie their arses off to attack the left. Did you Check out the rest of what she said?
That equality between the sexes should mean that women and men contribute equally to civic institutions, and that where that isn’t happening for structural reasons then that society will be missing out, obviously, on the benefits that would be derived from the talents of the excluded groups.
You did check eh? nah. Too hard. You just saw some fuckstick with a quote that reinforced your belief, so didn’t want to check. Funny that.
“That equality between the sexes should mean that women and men contribute equally to civic institutions, and”
Take another look at the audience. The old Julia would be screaming “misogyny”.
…… there goes one smart fella!
In today’s cynical world of politics, let’s hope Labour (and the left generally*) sees an opportunity (though I’m not holding my breathe).
* when I say “the left” – it’s in the context that the pendulum has swung so far right over the past few decades that I actually mean ‘centre’ – unfortunately we’ve allowed the language and the entire socio-political spectrum to have been hijacked. The good thing about pendulums is that they swing in both directions and the right axis is damn near at its limit)
Thanks for that, Te Reo. Even before the terrible revelations about his crimes, I never got Jimmy Savile. He seemed devoid of talent, and never said anything funny.
As for Laws, he’s beneath contempt. I wonder how many hours, how many DAYS, he has spent railing at Māori “ferals” and “lowlifes” for doing just what concerned hospital staff now accuse him of doing.
It’s not just an accusation, Moz. He’s publicly admitted having spanked their “bottoms”. Bottoms; a Savile like use of the language to diminish the crime. What a perv.
He’s publicly admitted having spanked their “bottoms”…
I’ll bet it didn’t stop there. That’s how the Kahuis started out, of course—smacking their children, just as the likes of Laws and Bob McCoskrie and Christine (Spankin’) Rankin recommend.
I would ask that you stop using the very sad case of the Kahui children to push your barrow and i ask simply because there are many many cases of child abuse and child killing in this country (some not involving tangata whenua too, believe it or not) and that case is just one. I am not trying to excuse what happened or the fact that it did happen and i’m not asking anyone to forget that it happened, I just think your continued stamping of this one is a bit overdone, and i do not think you can say “that is how they started out” because i don’t think you really know that.
Impoverishment in the Appalachians: living high on drugs every day, hiring prostitutes for a $12.99 case of Pepsi, being declared mentally ill as the only means of economic survival
The Appalachians are a region made up of east side inland states of the USA, stretching from Pennsylvania through to parts of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi in the south.
It is, economically and socially as Chris Hedges terms it, a “sacrifice zone” which the US Government and the corporate elite have discarded in order to make larger corporate profits exporting its industries and jobs elsewhere.
The area is only a 5 to 6 hour drive from the millionaire congressmen of Washington DC. The article also explicitly mentions the TPPA.
It works like this: Once a month, the debit-card accounts of those receiving what we still call food stamps are credited with a few hundred dollars — about $500 for a family of four, on average — which are immediately converted into a unit of exchange, in this case cases of soda. On the day when accounts are credited, local establishments accepting EBT cards — and all across the Big White Ghetto, “We Accept Food Stamps” is the new E pluribus unum – are swamped with locals using their public benefits to buy cases and cases — reports put the number at 30 to 40 cases for some buyers — of soda. Those cases of soda then either go on to another retailer, who buys them at 50 cents on the dollar, in effect laundering those $500 in monthly benefits into $250 in cash — a considerably worse rate than your typical organized-crime money launderer offers — or else they go into the local black-market economy, where they can be used as currency in such ventures as the dealing of unauthorized prescription painkillers — by “pillbillies,” as they are known at the sympathetic establishments in Florida that do so much business with Kentucky and West Virginia that the relevant interstate bus service is nicknamed the “OxyContin Express.” A woman who is intimately familiar with the local drug economy suggests that the exchange rate between sexual favors and cases of pop — some dealers will accept either — is about 1:1, meaning that the value of a woman in the local prescription-drug economy is about $12.99 at Walmart prices.
Coming soon, to a white “advanced” nation near you.
Thanks for the link CV. So why isn’t labour unequivocal in rejecting TPP? Why support in principle? I have heard DC say twice that he learned ”how the world works” while on overseas postings as an MFAT official. He didn’t develop his political worldview in his own country.
Only their purpose is mad.
National Review has an actually interesting report by Kevin Williamson on the state of Appalachia, providing a valuable portrait of the region’s woes — plus an account of how people turn food stamps fungible by converting them into soda. But the piece also has a moral: the big problem, it argues, is the way government aid creates dependency. It’s the Paul Ryan notion of the safety net as a “hammock” that makes life too easy for the poor.
But do the facts about Appalachia actually support this view? No, they don’t. Indeed, even the facts presented in the article don’t support it.
Williamson dismisses suggestions that economic factors might be driving social collapse:
Krugman makes some good points. But a chart of unemployment rate in that county, as he uses it, is also very misleading.
Once your unemployment insurance expires, you are no longer counted as being “unemployed.” This is the kind of cruel game that is being played by the elites on the ordinary people in those areas.
They make your suffering, and indeed you, totally officially invisible.
NB Hedges and Sacco spent up to two years on the ground, living amongst and interviewing the people most affected in the sacrifice zones, while researching and writing the book “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt.”
While there are many good things to say about Krugman, I dare say that he hasn’t spent even one day doing that.
To be fair Krugman’s hammock in Kentucky line is responding to Williamson’s assertion that In effect, welfare has made Appalachia into a big and sparsely populated housing project — too backward to thrive, but just comfortable enough to keep the underclass in place. There is no cure for poverty, because there is no cause of poverty — poverty is the natural condition of the human animal and he, Williamson, continues with Digging coal is hard work, farming is hard work, timbering is hard work — so hard that the best and brightest long ago packed up for Cincinnati or Pittsburgh or Memphis or Houston. See, it’s all their fault.
The Williamson piece actually doesn’t bear close scrutiny. On abortion:
”Kentucky is No. 19 in the ranking of states by teen pregnancy rates, but it is No. 8 when it comes to teen birth rates, according to the Guttmacher Institute, its young women being somewhat less savage than most of their counterparts across the country. Kentucky and West Virginia have abortion rates that are one-fourth those of Rhode Island or Connecticut, and one-fifth that of Florida. More marriage, less abortion: Not exactly the sort of thing out of which conservative indictments are made.”
Less savage??
The american decay book I’m looking forward to reading this year, when I track it down, is: The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, by George Packer.
From the Archdruid, facing the resource-depleted, powerdown, de-industrial future: seven sustainable technologies
1. Organic intensive gardening (grow lots of food with techniques that also build soil and don’t need inputs from far away).
2. Solar thermal technologies (passive solar for heating, cooking, hot water etc)
3. Sustainable wood heating (coppicing for firewood, rocket stoves for massively more efficiency. JMG doesn’t mention this, but burning wood can be carbon neutral)
4. Sustainable health care (both mainstream and alternative systems need to get their shit together on this)
5. Letterpress printing and its related technologies (cultures with block printing retained their knowledge through collapse, cultures reliant on hand-writing didn’t).
6. Low-tech shortwave radio (one of the post-civilisation techs we could keep going and make good use of)
7. Computer-free mathematics (we need to preserve these skills before they are lost, how to build bridges, navigate, do accounting etc without computers)
Those of my readers who want to do something constructive about the harsh future ahead thus could do worse than to adopt one or more of the technologies I’ve outlined, and make a personal commitment to learning, practicing, preserving, and transmitting that technology into the future. Those who decide that some technology I haven’t listed deserves the same treatment, and are willing to make an effort to get it into the waiting hands of the future, will get no argument from me. The important thing is to get off the couch and do something, because the decline is already under way and time is getting short.
Any suggestions of other sustainable technologies? (in the real sense of the word sustainable eg on timescales of millennia they are not dependent on fossil fuels, they’re local, they don’t pollute, they contribute more than they consume…).
The letterpress one made me think alot. NZ could learn much from Maori in terms of oral tradition skills too.
Me too, although I tend to think that when both mainstream and alternative get thrown in the thick of it, many are going to be in for a sharp surprise.
#3 sustainable wood is one that could be a major benefit for NZ. I’ve been doing a bit of background reading to Neville Auton’s speech at the 2014 NZ Oil Free Future Conference in Dunedin last Saturday. What he said then seems to stack up.
The bio-coal produced from wood torrification (heating till hydrophobic) would allow for substitution of coking coal in steel manufacture (a role originally played by charcoal). Gasified wood as a heating and automative fuel also has potential (but requires infrastructure investment).
When a tree is cut down presently in NZ plantations, a large proportion of it’s biomass is left to rot and only the straight logs removed from site. That waste could be turned into a fuel source worth 8 times the cash value of the logs themselves. Auton claimed that a 27 year rotation cycle of pine plantation planting & harvesting would be sustainable. Though this would vary with latitude and topography; so 25-30 years depending on location might be a better characterisation.
That’s interesting Pasupial, although I would see that as a transition tech rather than a sustainable one. What’s the EROEI? (ie esp what is needed to run the torrification plants?). I can also see it being used for small scale, imperative manufacture or transport fuel, rather than the huge consumption manufacturing we do now.
Not convinced monocropping pine is the best way to go, but we should make use of our expertise in this area in the meantime. But also develop better polyculture forestry (knowledge, skills, forests). And let the wilding pines grow into managed forestry.
Do you know if there is anything online from the summit? I couldn’t see anything obvious on the two websites.
“7. Computer-free mathematics (we need to preserve these skills before they are lost, how to build bridges, navigate, do accounting etc without computers)”
Any person who right now is in their early to mid 40’s and older, who is employed as a CAD designer for an engineering company will have trained and worked with pre computer technology, ie, the drawing board and drawing instruments. Prior to the introduction of CAD software all engineering design was manually calculated, and it wasn’t even that long ago, not even a generation ago!
There’s your bridge builders, sewer system designers and all other necessary infrastructure design, right there. Just as long as society and governments are prepared for the future, young people can be trained.
I would also suggest that folks consider their reliance upon technology and how this could potentially weaken their resilience. No GPS? hope you can read a map. If you’re sailing , you may need to navigate by the stars ( I know a retired sea captain who can do this) No smartphone? Hope you have enough comms skills to engage with your neighbour. No food? Hope you know how to grow food from seed. (hmm gotta learn that one, and that’s if TPPA doesn’t allow Monsanto to be the sole supplier of GE terminator technology crop seed to NZ or some weird shit like that)
Computers have only been on our planet for a relatively short time. We’ve got enough smarts to get through without them, especially when you consider the great civilisations that have gone before us.
mid 40s and older… so we have maybe 30 years to make sure that the knowledge survives and is transferrable. That’s not a huge amount of time, esp if those skills are no longer being taught independently of computers.
Computers have only been on our planet for a relatively short time. We’ve got enough smarts to get through without them, especially when you consider the great civilisations that have gone before us.
Great civilisations often lose their skills in declines for centuries before regaining or relearning them.
I’ve got used to usual themes from those editorials but this one refers to the Epsom seat as a rort:
“The system’s designers expected most voters to give the second vote to the candidate of their preferred party and, left alone, that is what the most do. But National voters in Epsom have been urged to use their electorate vote “strategically” to give the centre-right at least one more seat than it strictly deserves.
The polls are finally balanced between National and a possible Labour-led coalition, so National is anxious to repeat this rort in Epsom and maybe in a few other seats.”
And the final paragraph: “This could be the year that voters rebel against these machinations and resolve to vote as their minds and hearts are inclined. The fact is nobody knows the result in advance. Manipulative strategies can have perverse outcomes. Better that we vote honestly.”
“Vote” and “honestly” in the same sentence in the Herald?
Still want to know who writes these things, but today it is for a different reason entirely.
Cameroon Brewer heard on Nat Radio questioning cost of security guards present when Len Brown speaks. Essentially to stop hecklers getting too close. We saw what happened in Christchurch when one rival tried to disrupt Liane Dalziel’s opening campaign. So imagine Len having to “defend” his turf everytime he tries to speak.
The real question that needs asking is why does John Key need so many in his entourage even when he’s surrounded by “friends”? A bit of an overkill, or is the man a real putsy?
Yep …. quite pathetic eh? That’s more about their sense of entitlement and ‘perks for the bois’ though.
I find it amusing at times (funny if it wasn’t so serious) given my various extended family/working-life contacts with some of them. Like various chauffeurs whose new bathrooms fell off the back of Wellington Hospital Board trucks; or spooks who were instructed on ‘political correctness about “murrays”‘; or…. the examples are countless.
Ekshly – as funny as farts really given one in particular’s revelations prior to his (self-inflicted) death
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
matt mccarten has one valid question for dotcom..
..but otherwise he just pretty much ‘blows smoke’..
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/matt-mccarten-accuses-dotcom-of-lying-about-the-reasons-for-cancelling-his-launch-party-and-mccarten-blows-smoke/
phillip ure..
Kim Dotcom
“John Key and his partners have lost the connection with the people and their original purpose. I would never have gone into politics if it wasn’t for the abuse that I have experienced. I have been a victim of numerous unlawful actions by both the New Zealand and US Governments. There’s something seriously wrong with a government that engages in this kind of activity to please another government.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11188725
It’s imperial subserviency.
And guess what the TPPA is about.
Yep, KDC seems to realise that:
The intelligent gathered is used to target terrorists with drones. This is an ancient military tactic. The shock trooper. We are at war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_troops
That its outsourced, no soldiers necessary, and kills innocent women and children, creating collateral damage to our allies, hidden behind the curtain of state security, should scare everyone except of course we believe – like our leaders – that psychological warfare is not only legal but necessary to transform backward societies.
The five eyes is just the tip of the problem, that we can talk about thanks to Dotcom and Snowdon. Dotcom from his lawyers opening up the illegality of spy agencies, and Snowdon for the outsourcing, depth, breath, of the spying.
+1
Do McDonalds and other sectors of the food industry pay the Herald to write their articles?
Susan Edmunds hang your head in shame.
What a disgraceful and desperate corporate rag.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11188688
@ paul..
..yeah..i saw that one..
..it deserves a special award all of its’ own..
..something like ‘craven sychophancy to planet-fucking corporate villain journalism award’..
..would that do..?
phillip ure..
I really liked this bit.
Another widely-heard myth was that there were antibiotics in chicken meat. But it had been years since any antibiotic residue had been found in chicken meat – “There’s quite a stringent testing programme,” in New Zealand.”
I think that the word myth in this instance has not been used correctly, I thought that a myth was something that was not true, a story , a fiction that is widely told. If however it has actually been true in the past – ie their used to be antibiotics in chicken. Then it is not a myth at all.
No antibiotics? Not according to this article.
‘Thirty per cent of chickens in 20 farms across the North Island have been found to be suffering from leg problems affecting their movement.
The finding is in a new report from the Ministry for Primary Industries that lifts the lid on “lameness levels” among New Zealand’s indoor chicken meat farms.All the farms surveyed had feed containing antibiotics.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/9264409/North-Island-inspections-find-lame-chickens
Susan Edmunds and The NZ Herald,do you research your stories…or just repeat what the corporates tell you?
Although to be pedantic, feeding chickens antibiotics doesn’t mean there will be residue in the meat. Meat producers have delay times between medicating animals and those animals being slaughtered for consumption (same with pesticide use on plants), so the antibiotics can be metabolised out (ie they go into the chook poo and in to the environment instead).
I don’t know if I believe the bit about no residues, but it is technically possible.
Even if the antibiotic issues is resolved, eating animals raised in factories changes the nutrient profile, which is a good reason not to eat them (in addition to the cruelty aspect).
Yep, it’s the caged farming of the chickens that’s the problem – not the antibiotics.
The antibiotics are serious problem too. Their overuse in raising food is causing resistance bacteria, and then the drugs end up in the environment as well. It’s possible to raise animals without using antibiotics like that.
Yes but not in cages. It’s the cages that make the antibiotics necessary.
Shame that animals, unlike us, are too smart to fall for the whole panopticon ruse then…y’know, cause in that case, we could have them raised with the bars essentially in their heads and presumably have no need for them thar antibiotics.
“Yes but not in cages. It’s the cages that make the antibiotics necessary.”
Cages mean greater use of antibiotics, but I think you will find that freerange conventional chook farms use antibiotics too.
Agree with you here weka, the problem with feeding antibiotics to animals that we then go on to eat is that IF we are then exposed to higher antibiotic use through the food chain this may go some way to explain why antibiotics have now become so ineffective in too many areas of medicine,
Having just spent the week researching H3N2,(a flu virus), on another little mission,i can say that antibiotics are 93% inefficient against this particular viral infection,(which may be why there is a high instance of H3N2 morphing into full on viral pneumonia)…
Hmm, antiobiotics work against bacteria. They don’t affect viruses. Sometimes they are prescribed for viral infections to prevent secondary bacterial infection, but they are not a remedy for flu viruses.
Yeah sorry, i should have said bacterial pneumonia there and the problem with the A strain of H3N2 in particular is the co-infections that have a propensity to invade along with it,
http://www.cdc.govt/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6116a4.htm
the antibiotics may not be their but the resistant bugs will be their.
Antibiotic feed raises heavier birds.
What’s Judith Collins playing at?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11188760
Is she just trying to distance the government from any fallout if it’s determined that the relevant agencies have tragically failed the family in Dunedin?
Is she just trying to soften her ‘crusher’ image and boost her profile? If so, why? And wouldn’t it be pretty tacky to use a tragedy like this for such a thing?
Given that this is the second attention-grabbing story from her in a week (this other being the attack on the CTU over the H&S money allocated by ACC which she subsequently backed away from, after getting the headline she wanted) is it that she’s privy to information around the election timing and she’s just switched into campaign mode?
Gievn the attitudes of the Nacts towards DV –
no statistics published,
repealing the Bristol clauses,
the costs and difficulties of getting protection orders to start with (there are only a few thousand each year compared to the traffic through the Refuges and the 76,000 complaints laid with the police),
the lack of police action with those 76,000 complaints (gotta keep the crime rates down you know)
the wet bus ticket safety orders used, (keep away from the house for three days- who cares if her and the kids have to move out, he needs the property)
the very watered down DV laws passed by the Nacts at the start of their reign
This smacks of a pre-emptive strike in case this blows up to roast busters size.
And of course it’s important that we focus on poor feeling sorry for poor Judith
Two points struck me
>>The Justice Minister spoke to the Herald on Sunday yesterday, after announcing plans to use GPS monitors to track violent men and stop them going near women they had threatened or attacked.
>>She was not impressed by criticism of police in this case.
I read in one report that the police took 50 minutes to respond.
If that was so then that appears to be the weak point. If the response is so slow then Gps, protection orders don’t appear to be at all effective.
AND has there been ANY arrests in the roast busters case?
“I read in one report that the police took 50 minutes to respond.”
But god help you if you do 4k over the speed limit.
I’m wary of Collins using this case (and her cousins) as a promo for using GPS monitors. This reminds me of the 5 Eyes use of domestic violence and child abuse, child pornography etc, as an reason for GCSB/NSA surveillance.
When it comes to domestic and partner abuse, there’s a far wider cultural problem – as seen with this case of a woman who was battered in the street, while by standers did nothing. One gave the reason for not intervening to help the woman as that he thought the perp was the victim’s partner.
It’s very difficult to intervene to stop domestic violence when it’s occurring. Sometimes the abuser and their victim then set upon the person who is trying to intervene. Your average citizen is simply not equipped to deal with a violent and potentially escalating situation. That’s why we have the police, who aren’t much good if they don’t respond.
This all points to there being systematic dysfunction within the police force, an observation confirmed by their refusal to divulge exactly how many times they had been contacted about Edward Livingstone’s horrendous behaviour.
The other issue here is that National has made huge cuts in the amount of funding for organizations that are designed to help abused woman and their children escape dangerous situations. The fact of the matter is that if some of those services were still available, then perhaps Katharine Webb’s children would still be alive.
I find it pretty disgusting that Judith Collin’s has decided to use these terribly sad deaths of two children to promote GPS monitors while not once addressing the actual underlying dysfunction her government has caused. She seems to think that only the murderer is to blame. However those who knew these murders were likely to occur are also somewhat to blame. They should feel ashamed and be held to account for not doing anything.
“That’s why we have the police, who aren’t much good if they don’t respond.”
+1
Unfortunately we don’t ekshly have a “police” as such these days. We have a “Polis”
… a corporatised, politicised, bean-counter-driven agency of State – not too dissimilar from the others whereby it has become yet another fiefdom – under the helm of its Commissar whose expectations as to performance, are driven by prescribed & economically-based ‘deliverables’ – all probably set up in some frikken ‘purchase agreement’ somewhere.
What’s even more sad (sadder?) is when it comes to ‘accountability, and transparency’ – the foot soldiers always get the blame.
i will not decry the behavior of the Police vis a vis Edward Livingston’s insanity, what i believe has occurred here is that when His ex-wife fled the property and alerted the police from the neighbour’s place she has confirmed on the phone to the Police Comm’s center that there definitely was a firearm involved,
Where there is confirmation of a definite firearm in an incident then ‘their rules’ are that the Armed Offenders Squad must be the ‘first arrivals’ as far as the Police goes,
While the above does beg the question ‘why then are there gun cabinets in every cop car’ i still understand why it is the Armed Offenders Squad,(and hence the 40 minutes to get to the property), who are tasked to be first at an incident where a firearm has been confirmed as being involved,
i particularly have no reason to be defending the plods, the only interaction i have ever had with them has been as the ‘offender’ and have only commented in the interest of balance…
In the interest of balance then I should level some criticism at our biased justice system that was more concerned with an abuser losing his job at Corrections than protecting his victims.
Let’s not forget that Livingstone boasted to people that he was going to kill his children before he went and committed that very heinous crime. What exactly did those people who he informed do about such statements and more to the point, what the fuck did the Police do about it? As far as I’m aware, threatening to kill children is a pretty serious crime.
Also, what exactly was the Police’s recommendations to the court when the idiot judge let Livingstone walk free for twice breaching his protection orders? I presume they were as equally biased as the Judge was because of Livingstone position.
Let’s not forget the compromised psychiatrist who made a submission/affidavit to the court saying Livingstone was fine because of a change in medication. That finding was clearly wrong and I presume he gave such a biased opinion because he was also employed by Corrections.
If Livingstone wasn’t a white male who worked for Corrections…a man who had twice been caught out breaching protection orders, made threats to kill his children and stalked his victims for at least a month before committing child murder and then suicide, he would have been locked up quick smart. So no bad12, I don’t accept that the Police are not to blame here because of procedural matters surrounding the actual murders. They could have done a lot lot more.
Sorry i cannot agree with you Jackel, i forgot the number of protection orders that are currently in force here but believe it to number over 20,000,
The simple fact is that these orders are actually breached so often that to lock up every offender for doing so would require a hell of a lot more prisons be built,
The obviously insane Livingstone, until the point where He actually physically acted fit the profile of what is in fact ‘pretty average’ for a person who has had a protection order issued against them, most who offend against protection orders desist after appearing in Court a couple of time and being warned off by a judge,
That small %, in my opinion those with the strongest belief that their ex partner and children are their ‘property’,go on to acts of violence and it is left to the judiciary to try and fathom just who among the 1000’s of those who do breach protection orders is so dangerous that they have to be locked up,
As family violence has no particular demographic, except for by a huge % usually being the province of the male ‘the system’ gets it wrong when attempting to define the danger level of a particular breacher of a protection order a many times as it gets it right,
As i said at the start of this comment, other then the present system the alternative would be to build one hell of a lot more prisons and lock up every breacher of a protection order…
You do have a point that the breaches of Livingstone’s protection orders that the Police pursued weren’t particularly serious. However it is his other behaviour that the Police appear to have not bothered to act on that is of most concern…particularly the fact that Livingstone had threatened to kill his children. Are you seriously saying that the Police should not have arrested Livingstone for threatening to kill children?
I don’t necessarily agree that we would need more prisons (there are in fact far more cells available than currently required) if protection orders were more heavily enforced. What we do need is for officials to do their jobs properly, because for every Livingstone who is allowed his freedom to go onto commit further crimes, there are people who are being locked up for no good reason at all because of failings and bias within a corrupted system.
Much of this disproportionate application of the law is based on a person’s position within society, who they know or are related to and/or the colour of their skin. It is also related to the bean counters trying to get blood out of a stone. Some of those dysfunctional aspects of our “justice” system appear to be why these terrible murders have occurred, which I might add is a statement that doesn’t diminish the brevity of Livingstone’s unforgivable crimes at all.
Nope never even came anywhere near insinuating that the Police should not have arrested Livingston and put Him befor the Court for threats against His children,and my defense of the Plods has simply been one of defending the time it took them to get to the address and why i think it took that time,
i totally agree with you vis a vis the likes of Livingston and the outcome that is more likely to occur where the person in breach of a protection order happens to be brown and unemployed and the statistics would tell us that living in the much extolled ‘family’ is to all extents and purposes just as dangerous,if not more so,then drinking every night in a bar frequented by gang members,
While i totally agree with you on the fact that any number of those filling our jails are of no real danger to the public and should be either serving community or home based sentences my comments above are based around what IS as opposed to the ideal…
I’m with you on this one Jackel. The ability of the system, male judges, police, courts to find excuses for offenders and actively promote their rights to do what they are doing up to and including the stuff going on right in front of them has to be seen to be believed.
There needs to be a graduated response:
The easiest way to ascertain the degree of the offence is to provide voluntary programmes and at the first hint of breaches unless someone goes and gets a pass out certificate then it goes to court.( a way out for the genuinely sorry and a oncer)
If they don’t do that, then you lock them up for a couple of days a week, their weekend, and the programme is now compulsory. If they don’t turn up they get arrested at work which is apparently a huge deterrent.
The left overs are real trouble.
And yes socio-economic variables play a huge part in judicial response.
@ scott..
i would go with ..’b’…
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/collins-continues-her-campaign-to-succeed-key-the-care-edition/
phillip ure..
Playing “I am a victim too” scenario tends to blindside the public into believing that you are working in the interests of “everyone”. A GPS unit to track those with restraining orders today, they also want to monitor pedophiles, the thing is, then what is next on the agenda?
Remember Pike River. Gary Knowles, the local superintendent was heavily criticized at the time, but in reality, he was just taking his orders from Police National Headquarters in Wellington. When Judith Collins arrived down in Greymouth, she was ready to round up anyone criticizing Gary Knowles, but she never admitted he was simply following a script. The Police in Wellington were completely unaware of Mines Rescue Unit, who were sitting right by the mine. That was where the real incompetence lay, and Judith Collins was only to willing to cover it up.
Its possible to put six propellers on a circuit board and herd sheep. Its easy and cheap to place six toy tank tracks on a circuit board and send it up the mine (and have some spare to attach a rope and pull them out should they fail). But we don’t because the National politicians are exposed on this issue, it was their policy around safety. Their ideology around profit at all costs. Their inane mining will grow NZ when we don’t have a empty desert like Australia’s mine industry has.
Treating or not? Matt McCarten reckons that Dotcom’s party would not have contravened electoral law:
I thought the problem wasn;t that it was meant to be a political party launch, but that it was providing free entertainment as PR for the Internet party launch….?
He also claims that Palino had ‘outsiders’ run his strategy.
BBzzzztt! Wrong. He had the Slater Gang running his (Palino) strategy, the ultimate insiders. McCarten wake up.
What people constantly overlook in the Internet Party start up fiasco is that DotCom was going to hoodwink a lot of people into joining his party, by having a party. Scumbags like the Slater Gang would instantly be complaining to Police and other officials trying to scupper Dotcom, all at the behest of the 9th Floor.
Dotcom is out to get Key, and they will do ANYTHING to stop that.
Yes, it’s looking like Teams Key and Slater/Collins don’t want to be exposed by a KDC-led party. But also, the Mana Party supported by Matt McCarten must fear that the IntP will cut into their potential votes – both hoping to pull in some votes from the politically disengaged, non-voting young.
I see McCarten also takes a little swipe at the IntParty maybe pulling in some “soft Green Party” votes. Kind of a dog whistle for Greens appealing to “blue greens” and not really being a left party.
Speaking of the Mana Party, a big ups to the Party in Auckland for helping get together six shipping containers of food and other basics for the cyclone ravaged people of Tonga,
Basic bread and butter stuff with a lotta heart thrown in is why i am definitely,(while the Green Party is polling high),considering casting a vote for the Mana Party in 2014 in an attempt to have 2 or 3 Mana Party Parliamentarians emerge from the 2014 election which would pretty much ensure Slippery and His Ministers are made redundant…
@ bad..
labour need to come to their senses..
..and to learn how to live/co-exist under mmp..
..and to not oppose harawira/sykes getting their seats..
..and of course the counter-deal mana could offer..
..would be not to oppose labour in key marginal-seats for them..
..where a strong mana candidate could seriously eat into labour votes..
..and could decide the seat..
(bradford standing in waitakere…as just one potent example..
..and that isn’t the only one..)
..labour still seem to operate under a f.p.p.-mentality..
..of go out and try to slaughter all yr potential coalition allies..
..utter fucken madness..
..on so so many levels..
..(and to show you how far off the ball labour are..
..they are currently strutting around boasting to their followers/supporters that they will take back all the maori seats..
..what utter fucken idjits they are…eh..?..)
..just engaging their brains for a short time..would surely show labour the follies of their current/apparent master-plan..?
..you’d think..?
phillip ure..
Phillip,cannot disagree with any of your analysis and i think i have commented a number of times in the same vein,
Indeed, i have a view that Labour have an excellent chance of taking back both Te Tai Hauauru and Tamaki Makaurau in 2014,(in saying so i may be gauging too lightly the Mana Party support in Auckland),
It then would seem,in the light of ‘the rights’ happy gerry mandering only common sense for Labour and Mana to agree on these two seats with the Mana Party agreeing not to stand candidates and Labour agreeing not to contest Waiariki where Flavell has a 1000 vote majority over Annette Sykes,
MMP demands of the major political parties that ‘they’ make accommodations with smaller parties while always looking for ways to foster and grow those parties, National seem to have grasped this little fact while a lot of Labour seem to be mired in the FPP past with an attitude that certain seats and constituencies are theirs as of right…
@ bad..
i am also looking to the greens to not be ‘spoilers’..
..(they do have an unfortunate history of doing that..)
..and why don’t labour come to an arrangement with the greens..
..over/for an electorate seat..?
..why can’t these people (on all sides..)..why is it they cannot seem to able to see more than five minutes ahead..?
..we all want a long-term progressive coalition here in new zealand..
..and it is up to these different players..
..to pack away their historical-bullshit/feuds/whatever..
..and to get those ducks lined up in a row..
..the ongoing spectacle of the centre-left/progressive-factions cannabilising each other..
..is most unedifying..
phillip ure..
Phillip, yes i agree the Green Party need carefully consider how thye approach ‘some’ of the electorate seats, and i believe that there is ongoing analysis of this within the Party hierarchy,(the genesis of the recent spat the Party had with David Hay being part of this),
Lolz,Noooooo, my belief is that in the MMP enviroment there is no need for a party such as the Greens to bother with electorate seats, i cannot envisage a time when the Green Party cannot muster more than 5% of the vote,(unless in say a coalition with Labour they allowed more of the Neo-Lib agenda to flourish simply to get bums on the heated seats of the Ministerial limo’s), so chasing electorate seats even if one were offered with a nod and a wink from Labour seems to me to be not the best use of resources,
Using such resources to chase, in the provincial cities, young born to rule National Party voters with a belief in ecological/enviromental issues so as to convince as many of them as possible to split their votes National electorate and Green party i believe would be a far more efficacious use of such resources…
@ bad..i’m kinda agnostic on the green electorate seat idea..
..i just saw it as a clear sign to voters that these centre-left components will be able to work together in parliament..
..and as for the future/growth of those smaller parties..
..that will largely depend on how they behave/perform while in government..
..phillip ure..
Two seats for Mana might be within reach. They, like ACT, were only about 4,000 votes short last time. However getting to three would mean getting twice as many votes as in the last election and looking at the polls would suggest that this is likely to be out of reach.
There isn’t any real sense in switching your vote from Green to Mana if your aim is to get a left wing Government as if as every new vote for Mana would merely be one less vote for the Green Party. Hence if Green party voters are the ones making the switch it simply means that an extra seat for Mana would mean one less seat for the Green Party. The “Green Party is polling high” has nothing to do with it.
Why not stick to the party you really support? If nothing else a Government comprising only Labour and the Green Party would likely be more stable than one made up of a lot of small parties.
Ha ha ha, Alwyn, you are not on Slippery the Prime Ministers payroll by any chance are you, your WRONG political analysis coupled with your last paragraph reek and drip as the writings of a snake-oil salesman,
Point(1), who would have expected a red-necked wing-nut to totally exclude Maori voters from their ‘thinking’ when it comes to the Mana Party,
Check out the Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election and the inroads the Mana party made to the vote of the Maori Party in that particular contest,
Do you really think that the disintergration of the Maori Party likely to be completed at the 2014 election will mean that Labour will have all those voters return to the Labour Party fold,(more fool you if you do), a huge swathe of Maori Party voters as shown by the Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election are going to transfer their vote to the Mana Party in 2014,
Point(2), The Green party vote, in which election has not the Green Party raised it’s share of the Party Vote, as a National Party tool Alwyn it is fact you who should be worried about the upward trajectory of the Green Party where in the National held electorates in Auckland City between elections 2008 and 2011 the Green Party managed to double it’s share of the Party vote,(yes even in the ACT held Epsom),
Should such an excellent result again transpire in those Auckland National held electorates for the Green Party or the same doubling of the Green Party vote occur in the National held provincial electorates then it’s ‘see you later Slippery time’,
You have Alwyn no understanding of what a ‘tactical voter’ is simply presupposing that i/we voted Green Party in 2011 and any deviation from this will result in a ‘loss’ of votes for the Party,
i am a Green Party member who happily admits to ‘tactical voting’, i have a budget for ‘political action’ most of which goes toward the Green Parties electoral efforts, see the ‘Point’ now do you Alywyn….
My God, how confused can you get?
What a load of tripe.
As a simple example, consider your second to last paragraph. If, as you appear to be saying, you voted Green at the last election and propose to switch and vote Mana at the next that is obviously a loss of a vote for the Greens. Everyone else who does the same is another vote lost for the Green party. Still, logic was never a strong point in the views of a Green.
In terms of Mana they haven’t got more that 1% in any of the Roy Morgan polls in the last six months. They will need to get about 2.3% if they hope to pick up three seats, won’t they? Alternatively they will need 3 electorate seats and that doesn’t seem likely.
As far as “In which election has not the Green Party raised its share of the party vote” you clearly have a very short memory. In 2002 they got 7% of the vote. In 2005 this DROPPED to 5.3%.
There, have another try.
Actually if I was a Green supporter I would worry that Dotcom might attract some support. I think that his natural supporters would comprise young people who either do not vote or who currently vote for the Green party. I don’t think he will so don’t get too fearful.
Yes Alwyn i am sure you are in a state of confusion most of the time, i suggest you read and then re-read that paragraph again slooooowly,
Maybe i should have resisted using such a phrase that ‘i being a tactical voter presupposes that i voted Green in 2011,
Do you now Get the point Alwyn, if i didn’t vote Green in 2011 then i and those who are of a like mind as tactical voters who vote for the Mana Party this year will result in no loss of vote to the Green Party,
As i point out above, my vote to the Green Party is worth, well its worth just one vote, however, if say my budget this year for ‘political activism’ is 500 dollars which for electioneering purposes the Green Party will get then in all reality advertising can be bought with that 500 dollars which will gain the Green Party more than just my one vote,
Of course if my 500 donation is used by the Green Party to mount a campaign in the provincial cities currently held by Slippery’s National Government that is as effective as that mounted in the National held Auckland City National held electorates at the 2011 election,(the Green Party doubled its vote in these electorates),then such a donation will definitely have a reward far greater than my
one simple vote could garner for them…
It is a little odd that someone who is a Green Party member but doesn’t vote for the party.
Perhaps you know the people on the list to well to want them anywhere near the heated leather seats in the Limos. That would make sense.
Giving money to the Mana party would certainly help them. That I do agree with.
You do continue to go on about the Green Party “doubling its vote in the National held Auckland electorates”. Can you please provide a reference that justifies this claim? After all we have already seen that you make claims that are not justified by facts, haven’t we? When you claimed that the Green Party vote has increased in evry election we see that was just an example of a furphy wasn’t it?
I have done a very quick check on your claim about the “Green Party doubled its vote” in those electorates. On a rough check, and I might have missed out one of the National held Auckland electorates, I find that the Green Party got 21,377 votes in 2008 and 33,756 votes in 2011. That is an increase, not of 100% as you claim, but of 58%. On the other hand looking at the whole country the Green Party went from 157,613 votes to 247,372. This is of course of 57%. There is clearly no real difference between “National held Auckland Electorates” and any others in the country is there?
Another wild claim busted, I’m afraid.
Alwyn, more lies from you, where have i claimed that the Green Party has increased it’s vote at every election,
What you take to be claiming that is in fact the question i put,”in which election has not the Green Party vote gone up”,
That to you might translate into a claim that the Green Party vote has gone up at every election but in plain English untwisted by the bent of a wing-nut(you), simply asks a question,
The doubling of the Green Party party vote in those Auckland electorates held by the National Party also includes Epsom held by act, i am sure you can find the particular government web-page which provides those facts,
Lolz, and Lolz again only a 58% increase in that Green Party party vote in the Auckland City electorates held by National between elections 2008 and 2011, that deserves another large LOL and is sure as hell wing-nut heaven pulling defeat from the jaws of victory,
Provide the relevant link to how you have arrived at this 58% LOLZ rise in the Green Party party vote and i might just be moved to provide you with the relevant large number of links to all those Auckland City electorates currently held by the National,(and ACT),parties…
It is normally the case, when one is asking a question, to put a question mark at the end, isn’t it? Of course you don’t seem to know about such things and the way you wrote it makes it a statement, not a question. You really must try harder.
Even if you include Epsom, and that is not of course a National held seat, you only get an increase in the Auckland National and ACT seats of 59% from 2008 to 2011. That is still vastly short of the doubling you keep going on about, isn’t it? Or are you completely innumerate and don’t see any difference between 1.59 and 2.00?
Where do I get the results you say? Well they are all in http://www.electionresults.govt.nz
I’m sure you can find that website and see that I am right. You can also tell me where you found these numbers that according to you show that the Green Party DOUBLED their vote in those electorates. You have now made that claim three times. Alternatively you can give up and admit that the claim was wrong and that you were lying when you made it.
or it would be like dunne and banks and just do what they what they are told.
alwyn your not even a second rate stirer.
I was also unimpressed by Matt’s claim that the party would not have contravened electoral law, considering the amount of press coverage of the Electoral Commission’s advice to KDC’s lawyers.
For example, NBR have a copy of the email from the Electoral Commission and quoted it in full in this article on Thursday.
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/dotcom-pulls-plug-party-db-150735
The Electoral Commission make it clear in their email, that even if the political party launch was done separately, the entertainment Party could still possibly be considered ‘treating’.
You will note that Section 217 applies even though (a) the treating may be direct or indirect, (b) at any time, not just during an election period, and (c) apply to every elector and not just the promoter of an event such the Party Party. The Commission remains concerned that the action Kim Dotcom intends to take (limiting the event to his 40th birthday and the –launch of his music album) may not be sufficient to eliminate the risk of the activity falling within the scope of the treating provisions. This is because the event was originally intended to include the Internet Party launch, we understand that the event will be called the Party Party and Kim Dotcom is the leader of the Internet Party. In addition, we understand that the Internet Party’s soft launch was to be scheduled for the same day as the event.*
The Courts have previously held that the offence of “treating” requires an intention on the part of the person treating to influence the votes of the persons treated.
The question of intention is an inference of fact which the Court has to draw. If in any case, looking at all the circumstances, the reasonable and probable effect of the alleged treating would be to influence the result of the election, or to influence the votes of individual voters, it might well be inferred that it was the intention of the persons treating that this effect would follow.
The Commission is concerned that the Party Party may expose both those promoting an attending it to risk of prosecution for treating.
*PS – I had not read this article or the Electoral Commission’s email before my comment on Friday(?) on The Internet Party post in which I speculated that KDC and Co may have been contemplating still holding the IP launch on the same day, once it became obvious that they could not do it at the PartyParty. Not trying to be ‘smart’, but it would seem my speculation was on the mark. Pheewww. Not that it is of any real importance, anyway.
@ veuto..
..so mccarten is just blowing smoke…
..on all levels..?
phillip ure..
Not sure, Phillip. But I was not impressed with his article overall either. Seemed to be a bit of sour grapes to me. IMO, the Internet Party may appeal to a very different constituency to the Mana Party, but we will not really know until we see the IP’s policies and candidates.
According to this Herald article today, the launch has been postponed for a month until February 20.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11188725
The article also seems to imply that they will be taking a very different approach to that proposed in the leaked Bradbury proposal of concentrating on 2 – 3 Auckland electoral seats. Instead, it seems to suggest that they will be going for party votes to get them over the 5% threshold.
The gloves are already off between KDC and Key, although I haven’t seem Key’s comments on the IP. I gather Key is ‘back in town’ and was (or is) opening Chinese New Year celebrations this weekend.
@ veuto..
“..we will not really know until we see the IP’s policies and candidates…”
that is the origin of my smoke-blowing claim..
..as none of those ‘pundits’ punditing away..know what those policies are..
..so to come out and make these adamant statements..
..based on nothing..
..move their writings out of the realm of critical-thinking..
..and into that other (far more ‘loose’) area..
..of orifice-plucking..
..and this effort is the second half of a twofer from mccarten..
..last week he cast his predictions for the outcome of this years’ election..
..and despite the launch/forming of dotcoms’ party being widely heralded..
..this (as yet unknown) phenomenon/entity..
..didn’t rate a mention in mccartens’ shuffling of the runes..
..and thus instantly bouncing that piece out of ‘critical-thinking’..
..and slap-bank into orifice-plucking..
..(how could it not..?..)
..in the past mccarten has written much of note..
..(the mccarten archives @ whoar are extensive..
..and deservedly so..)
..w.t.f. is going on here..?
..phillip ure..
My’ not sure’ was in relation to your “on all levels”, rather than your ‘just blowing smoke’ . Sorry I did not make that clear. I had also forgotten about his earlier article, so must go back and reread it. I do give Mccarten a bit of slack due to his health problems over recent years.
Cheers
Free entertainment, free booze and free food at a political launch? Yep, definitely against the law.
In that article, McCarten is talking out his arse.
Surprise. Surprise. ACC manipulated by politicians. In the Press today. Nick Smith? Surely not!
” A leaked internal ACC document claims successive governments have manipulated the scheme for their own political ends.
Produced for former chief executive Ralph Stewart , the document contains a chart showing a correlation between the government in office and the inflation-adjusted payments made by ACC.
According to the document, Need for Change, ACC is “demonstrably inconsistent” and claimants are treated differently according to “political cycles”.
A former ACC director aid the swings in policy were achieved through governments appointing the ACC board, which instructs chief executives what is required of them. …….”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/9626111/ACC-payments-manipulated
In case you missed it….prime example of how loosely left politicians hold their principles. Big ups to the Kiwi student that asked the obvious question though….
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/
For once I agree with you.
It’s tweedledee and tweedledum politics.
Most parliamentary left groups betrayed their people 30 years ago.
Hence the 800 000 non-voters.
Most Labour parties are simply offering neo-liberalism lite.
Gillard is angling for a UN job. Rum our is that she is likely to replace Helen Clark as concern builds within the UN at the current performance of the UNDP
@ grumpy..
wow..!..are you saying..that clark..
..after her sterling/stellar performance here in new zealand in fighting poverty…
..hasn’t been able to repeat her performance here..there..?
..or are you saying that actually she has replicated her (actual/real) efforts/results here..there..
..and hence the widespread disquiet at her performance/results..
..there..?
..phillip ure..
http://undpwatch.blogspot.co.nz
@ grumpy..
heh..!..you rely on fox-news..?
..you do know they have been shown/proven..to often lie thru their teeth..?
..eh..?
phillip ure..
I think that whoever has come up with this rumour should get the classic Darryl Kerrigan response in the movie “The Castle”. In other words “Tell him he’s dreaming”.
Helen’s second, current, term won’t expire until around the middle of 2017. The UN has no record of replacing people in senior roles before the expiry date, and isn’t likely to start now.
Additionally of course there is no point in Gillard “angling for a UN job, at least at the level of Clark’s one unless she gets strong backing from her own Government. Do you really think that Abbott would spend significant political credit on Gillard’s dreams?
Lol, that article is a prime example of how loosely right wing spokesbots lie their arses off to attack the left. Did you Check out the rest of what she said?
That equality between the sexes should mean that women and men contribute equally to civic institutions, and that where that isn’t happening for structural reasons then that society will be missing out, obviously, on the benefits that would be derived from the talents of the excluded groups.
You did check eh? nah. Too hard. You just saw some fuckstick with a quote that reinforced your belief, so didn’t want to check. Funny that.
“That equality between the sexes should mean that women and men contribute equally to civic institutions, and”
Take another look at the audience. The old Julia would be screaming “misogyny”.
How desperate are you? ffs
was the hit piece you linked to an accurate representation of her answer, or not?
Tongan artist John Vea celebrates migrant workers, and denounces the theft of their labour power by palangi capitalists:
http://eyecontactsite.com/2014/01/planting-plaster-john-vea-and-the-art-of-migrant-l
…… there goes one smart fella!
In today’s cynical world of politics, let’s hope Labour (and the left generally*) sees an opportunity (though I’m not holding my breathe).
* when I say “the left” – it’s in the context that the pendulum has swung so far right over the past few decades that I actually mean ‘centre’ – unfortunately we’ve allowed the language and the entire socio-political spectrum to have been hijacked. The good thing about pendulums is that they swing in both directions and the right axis is damn near at its limit)
Ten disturbing Lookalikes
“I do not know which is more annoying, the real Goodfellow or the reflection.”
—Julie Kagawa, The Iron Knight
1.) Tony Bliar, envoy of evil….
http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/20/134320-004-89969A8B.jpg
…looks uncannily like Joachim von Ribbentrop….
http://www.nndb.com/people/691/000022625/tony-blair-2-sized.jpg
2.) Hell’s manservant Alistair Campbell also looks like Ribbentrop….
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/uploads/pics/Ribbentrop.jpg
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/1/10/1263163866357/Alistair-Campbell-002.jpg
3.) “Blair’s brain” Peter Mandelson….
http://jspivey.wikispaces.com/file/view/goebels.jpg/33777397/goebels.jpg
…and Joseph Goebbels….
http://www.topnews.in/files/Peter-Mandelson.jpg
4.) Serial liar and war criminal Jack Straw….
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02147/Heinrich-Himmler_2147070a.jpg
….and Heinrich Himmler….
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UF0sw_aqMcc/TNwkrnU9CoI/AAAAAAAAAFo/3OfOVHNctG4/s1600/jack-straw-%25247008251%2524300.jpg
5.) N.J. Governor Chris Christie….
http://www.fijisun.com.fj/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Cameron-Slater.gif
…and Cameron “Whaleoil” Slater….
http://patdollard.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Chris-Christie.jpg
6.) Alleged kiddy-whacker Michael Laws….
http://media.apnonline.com.au/img/media/images/2010/11/03/mason_460x23046423.feature-image_t300.jpg
….and convicted kiddy-whacker Jimmy Mason….
http://www.odt.co.nz/files/story/2011/11/michael_laws_4ecad28ba2.JPG
7.) Science-denier and media whore Screaming Lord Monckton….
http://static.stuff.co.nz/1233108507/032/238032.jpg
…and media whore Tim Shadbolt….
http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/thumb/2/27/Monckton.jpg/235px-Monckton.jpg
8.) Knife enthusiast Garth McVicar….
http://www.celwalls.com/large/201302/3094.jpg
…and the man that Radio New Zealand continues to describe as a “victims’ advocate”….
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9zyxpgQDRrQ/UPsXz7-cPiI/AAAAAAAAHQ0/BSG6xV2R3S4/s1600/Garth%2BMcVicar%2BAsshole.jpg
http://www.newdressaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/1121chucky.jpg
9.) Notorious right wing blogger and shill for scofflaw regimes David Farrar….
http://media.web.britannica.com/eb-media/19/29919-004-90FD4D30.jpg
….and notorious Soviet commissar Lavrenty Beria…..
http://www.listener.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/David-Farrar1.jpg
10.) The next education minister Chris Hipkins….
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/fi/6/6e/Chucky-the-doll.jpg
….and the out-of-control doll Chucky….
http://arntrnassets.mediaspanonline.com/radio/n00/882607/David-Shearer-shears-Chris-Hipkins-for-cancer-27feb2013–DavidShearer-s-twitter.jpg
Child abuser update No 94:
a) M Lhaws. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11188767
b) J Saville: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jan/18/jimmy-savile-abused-1000-victims-bbc
Thanks for that, Te Reo. Even before the terrible revelations about his crimes, I never got Jimmy Savile. He seemed devoid of talent, and never said anything funny.
As for Laws, he’s beneath contempt. I wonder how many hours, how many DAYS, he has spent railing at Māori “ferals” and “lowlifes” for doing just what concerned hospital staff now accuse him of doing.
It’s not just an accusation, Moz. He’s publicly admitted having spanked their “bottoms”. Bottoms; a Savile like use of the language to diminish the crime. What a perv.
He’s publicly admitted having spanked their “bottoms”…
I’ll bet it didn’t stop there. That’s how the Kahuis started out, of course—smacking their children, just as the likes of Laws and Bob McCoskrie and Christine (Spankin’) Rankin recommend.
I would ask that you stop using the very sad case of the Kahui children to push your barrow and i ask simply because there are many many cases of child abuse and child killing in this country (some not involving tangata whenua too, believe it or not) and that case is just one. I am not trying to excuse what happened or the fact that it did happen and i’m not asking anyone to forget that it happened, I just think your continued stamping of this one is a bit overdone, and i do not think you can say “that is how they started out” because i don’t think you really know that.
Morrissey I get laws is running for the colon craig party,
he.s been in every other right wing party.
Laws now can call himself feral for real.
wasn’t he caught having an affair with a solo mum on methamphetamine.
Where’s Colin Craig? At least he admitted it.
…and his doppelgänger…..
Impoverishment in the Appalachians: living high on drugs every day, hiring prostitutes for a $12.99 case of Pepsi, being declared mentally ill as the only means of economic survival
The Appalachians are a region made up of east side inland states of the USA, stretching from Pennsylvania through to parts of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi in the south.
It is, economically and socially as Chris Hedges terms it, a “sacrifice zone” which the US Government and the corporate elite have discarded in order to make larger corporate profits exporting its industries and jobs elsewhere.
The area is only a 5 to 6 hour drive from the millionaire congressmen of Washington DC. The article also explicitly mentions the TPPA.
Coming soon, to a white “advanced” nation near you.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-18/vast-stretches-impoverished-appalachia-look-they-have-been-through-war
Thanks for the link CV. So why isn’t labour unequivocal in rejecting TPP? Why support in principle? I have heard DC say twice that he learned ”how the world works” while on overseas postings as an MFAT official. He didn’t develop his political worldview in his own country.
Only their purpose is mad.
Krugman.
National Review has an actually interesting report by Kevin Williamson on the state of Appalachia, providing a valuable portrait of the region’s woes — plus an account of how people turn food stamps fungible by converting them into soda. But the piece also has a moral: the big problem, it argues, is the way government aid creates dependency. It’s the Paul Ryan notion of the safety net as a “hammock” that makes life too easy for the poor.
But do the facts about Appalachia actually support this view? No, they don’t. Indeed, even the facts presented in the article don’t support it.
Williamson dismisses suggestions that economic factors might be driving social collapse:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/11/a-hammock-in-kentucky/
Krugman makes some good points. But a chart of unemployment rate in that county, as he uses it, is also very misleading.
Once your unemployment insurance expires, you are no longer counted as being “unemployed.” This is the kind of cruel game that is being played by the elites on the ordinary people in those areas.
They make your suffering, and indeed you, totally officially invisible.
NB Hedges and Sacco spent up to two years on the ground, living amongst and interviewing the people most affected in the sacrifice zones, while researching and writing the book “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt.”
While there are many good things to say about Krugman, I dare say that he hasn’t spent even one day doing that.
To be fair Krugman’s hammock in Kentucky line is responding to Williamson’s assertion that In effect, welfare has made Appalachia into a big and sparsely populated housing project — too backward to thrive, but just comfortable enough to keep the underclass in place. There is no cure for poverty, because there is no cause of poverty — poverty is the natural condition of the human animal and he, Williamson, continues with Digging coal is hard work, farming is hard work, timbering is hard work — so hard that the best and brightest long ago packed up for Cincinnati or Pittsburgh or Memphis or Houston. See, it’s all their fault.
The Williamson piece actually doesn’t bear close scrutiny. On abortion:
”Kentucky is No. 19 in the ranking of states by teen pregnancy rates, but it is No. 8 when it comes to teen birth rates, according to the Guttmacher Institute, its young women being somewhat less savage than most of their counterparts across the country. Kentucky and West Virginia have abortion rates that are one-fourth those of Rhode Island or Connecticut, and one-fifth that of Florida. More marriage, less abortion: Not exactly the sort of thing out of which conservative indictments are made.”
Less savage??
The american decay book I’m looking forward to reading this year, when I track it down, is: The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, by George Packer.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, as at 2008, 98% of Counties within Kentucky had no abortion provider.
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/sfaa/kentucky.html
In contrast, a quick search brings up 94 adoption industry organisations for the State.
http://directory.adoption.com/domestic/Kentucky,1,50,1.html
Bear in mind that the average cost for a domestic adoption in the USA is $35,000 – $45,000. Babies. They’re a Billion $$$ industry over there.
From the Archdruid, facing the resource-depleted, powerdown, de-industrial future: seven sustainable technologies
1. Organic intensive gardening (grow lots of food with techniques that also build soil and don’t need inputs from far away).
2. Solar thermal technologies (passive solar for heating, cooking, hot water etc)
3. Sustainable wood heating (coppicing for firewood, rocket stoves for massively more efficiency. JMG doesn’t mention this, but burning wood can be carbon neutral)
4. Sustainable health care (both mainstream and alternative systems need to get their shit together on this)
5. Letterpress printing and its related technologies (cultures with block printing retained their knowledge through collapse, cultures reliant on hand-writing didn’t).
6. Low-tech shortwave radio (one of the post-civilisation techs we could keep going and make good use of)
7. Computer-free mathematics (we need to preserve these skills before they are lost, how to build bridges, navigate, do accounting etc without computers)
Those of my readers who want to do something constructive about the harsh future ahead thus could do worse than to adopt one or more of the technologies I’ve outlined, and make a personal commitment to learning, practicing, preserving, and transmitting that technology into the future. Those who decide that some technology I haven’t listed deserves the same treatment, and are willing to make an effort to get it into the waiting hands of the future, will get no argument from me. The important thing is to get off the couch and do something, because the decline is already under way and time is getting short.
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.nz/2014/01/seven-sustainable-technologies.html
Any suggestions of other sustainable technologies? (in the real sense of the word sustainable eg on timescales of millennia they are not dependent on fossil fuels, they’re local, they don’t pollute, they contribute more than they consume…).
The letterpress one made me think alot. NZ could learn much from Maori in terms of oral tradition skills too.
+1
The 4th technology you listed – sustainable healthcare – is one that I am very much interested in.
JMG is always a good, practical read.
Me too, although I tend to think that when both mainstream and alternative get thrown in the thick of it, many are going to be in for a sharp surprise.
Weka
#3 sustainable wood is one that could be a major benefit for NZ. I’ve been doing a bit of background reading to Neville Auton’s speech at the 2014 NZ Oil Free Future Conference in Dunedin last Saturday. What he said then seems to stack up.
The bio-coal produced from wood torrification (heating till hydrophobic) would allow for substitution of coking coal in steel manufacture (a role originally played by charcoal). Gasified wood as a heating and automative fuel also has potential (but requires infrastructure investment).
When a tree is cut down presently in NZ plantations, a large proportion of it’s biomass is left to rot and only the straight logs removed from site. That waste could be turned into a fuel source worth 8 times the cash value of the logs themselves. Auton claimed that a 27 year rotation cycle of pine plantation planting & harvesting would be sustainable. Though this would vary with latitude and topography; so 25-30 years depending on location might be a better characterisation.
That’s interesting Pasupial, although I would see that as a transition tech rather than a sustainable one. What’s the EROEI? (ie esp what is needed to run the torrification plants?). I can also see it being used for small scale, imperative manufacture or transport fuel, rather than the huge consumption manufacturing we do now.
Not convinced monocropping pine is the best way to go, but we should make use of our expertise in this area in the meantime. But also develop better polyculture forestry (knowledge, skills, forests). And let the wilding pines grow into managed forestry.
Do you know if there is anything online from the summit? I couldn’t see anything obvious on the two websites.
“7. Computer-free mathematics (we need to preserve these skills before they are lost, how to build bridges, navigate, do accounting etc without computers)”
Any person who right now is in their early to mid 40’s and older, who is employed as a CAD designer for an engineering company will have trained and worked with pre computer technology, ie, the drawing board and drawing instruments. Prior to the introduction of CAD software all engineering design was manually calculated, and it wasn’t even that long ago, not even a generation ago!
There’s your bridge builders, sewer system designers and all other necessary infrastructure design, right there. Just as long as society and governments are prepared for the future, young people can be trained.
I would also suggest that folks consider their reliance upon technology and how this could potentially weaken their resilience. No GPS? hope you can read a map. If you’re sailing , you may need to navigate by the stars ( I know a retired sea captain who can do this) No smartphone? Hope you have enough comms skills to engage with your neighbour. No food? Hope you know how to grow food from seed. (hmm gotta learn that one, and that’s if TPPA doesn’t allow Monsanto to be the sole supplier of GE terminator technology crop seed to NZ or some weird shit like that)
Computers have only been on our planet for a relatively short time. We’ve got enough smarts to get through without them, especially when you consider the great civilisations that have gone before us.
mid 40s and older… so we have maybe 30 years to make sure that the knowledge survives and is transferrable. That’s not a huge amount of time, esp if those skills are no longer being taught independently of computers.
Great civilisations often lose their skills in declines for centuries before regaining or relearning them.
Lacquer – longest lived and strongest all natural composite materials technology. Requires: temperate forest trees (Toxicodendron verniciflua).
Nice!
Surprising anonymous editorial in today’s Herald: Your vote is not for trading
I’ve got used to usual themes from those editorials but this one refers to the Epsom seat as a rort:
“The system’s designers expected most voters to give the second vote to the candidate of their preferred party and, left alone, that is what the most do. But National voters in Epsom have been urged to use their electorate vote “strategically” to give the centre-right at least one more seat than it strictly deserves.
The polls are finally balanced between National and a possible Labour-led coalition, so National is anxious to repeat this rort in Epsom and maybe in a few other seats.”
And the final paragraph:
“This could be the year that voters rebel against these machinations and resolve to vote as their minds and hearts are inclined. The fact is nobody knows the result in advance. Manipulative strategies can have perverse outcomes. Better that we vote honestly.”
“Vote” and “honestly” in the same sentence in the Herald?
Still want to know who writes these things, but today it is for a different reason entirely.
Thanks, Molly – interesting.
The polls are finally balanced between National and a possible Labour-led coalition
Eh? “finely”, surely?!
Cameroon Brewer heard on Nat Radio questioning cost of security guards present when Len Brown speaks. Essentially to stop hecklers getting too close. We saw what happened in Christchurch when one rival tried to disrupt Liane Dalziel’s opening campaign. So imagine Len having to “defend” his turf everytime he tries to speak.
The real question that needs asking is why does John Key need so many in his entourage even when he’s surrounded by “friends”? A bit of an overkill, or is the man a real putsy?
Pure and simple: Image and malignant narcissistic ego ! It makes him look presidential.
(i.e. as to the size of his enterage)
Yeah, but taking them to Antarctica, and to Hawaii!!
A rogue penguin, maybe, and what are they supposed to do in Hawaii, sun, surf, and golf!!
Yep …. quite pathetic eh? That’s more about their sense of entitlement and ‘perks for the bois’ though.
I find it amusing at times (funny if it wasn’t so serious) given my various extended family/working-life contacts with some of them. Like various chauffeurs whose new bathrooms fell off the back of Wellington Hospital Board trucks; or spooks who were instructed on ‘political correctness about “murrays”‘; or…. the examples are countless.
Ekshly – as funny as farts really given one in particular’s revelations prior to his (self-inflicted) death
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/key-assaulted-waitangi-2464337
Jon Stewart: Bullshit Mountain poster